2007-06-28

Zimbabwe cricket continues to suck

A report by the BBC's Mihir Bose claims that Malcolm Speed does not believe Zimbabwe should be allowed to resume playing Test cricket in November, and that there the board's accounts have been "deliberately falsified".In his BBC blog, Bose writes that he has seen a copy of Speed's confidential report delivered to the ICC board today in which he says: "My personal view, shared by the cricket committee and ICC senior management, is that the game in Zimbabwe and, more widely, the rest of the cricket world, will not be well served by Zimbabwe resuming Test cricket at this stage. It is respectfully suggested that we must find other ways to assist cricketers in Zimbabwe".Speed's most damning comments concern the controversial forensic audit and raises serious concerns about the governance and financial accountability of Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC). The observations seem to give a strong endorsement of claims made for several years by stakeholders and administrators inside the country.The main discrepancy concerns payments totalling $640,350 to "three unknown companies" which the board failed to inform the auditors about. There are also queries relating to a deal with a car company worth $972,000. The board is believed to have imported the vehicles and then sold them to obtain extra local currency in direct contravention of the country's strict foreign-exchange regulations. The issue is further clouded because the board advised the forensic auditors that no cars had been imported or sold.